iPhone X Notification Facial Recognition Feature Will Give You So Much Privacy

Exactly one week since the launch of Apple's highly-anticipated iPhone X, dedicated users continue to unearth some of the phone's most unique and — 'cause this is Apple we're talking about here — very cool features, namely pertaining to Face ID. Beyond unlocking your phone with a single look, Apple's iPhone X facial recognition feature gives you privacy by hiding notification details on the lock screen until the you take a peek at the screen. Awesome, huh? Read on for everything we know about how to use the techie feature on iPhone X.

Maybe you're aware that hidden within "Notification Settings" on previous iPhone models, there's an option to hide text previews. On iOS 11, there's a way to do so all at once, even. But with the iPhone X, hidden notifications are the default setting. Unlike older models, however, with iPhone X, you only need to look at your phone in order to see what the notification says. It could be a private text from a friend or a push notification from your favorite App (Bustle's maybe?). Regardless, nobody will be able to read what's on your lock screen but you, because your face is what unlocks the iPhone X.

The fact that facial recognition on phones is even a thing still sounds crazy-futuristic to me. Like, the iPhone X literally knows you. Wired reporter Steven Levy tried the iPhone X and gave its innovative features a full-scale review — including this stealthy privacy feature.

Apple

When describing how Face ID works to show an iPhone X owner their notifications, Levy wrote, "A good way to see when you've been recognized is to notice the generic messages on the lock screen saying 'you have a notification' from Facebook, Gmail, or wherever." He continued, "When you and your iPhone X make that turn-on connection, those flesh out with the actual content of the message." Wow. My editor here at Elite Daily was also lent an iPhone X for review purposes and said it's awesome IRL. (Of course, if you're not interested in Face ID, you can turn it off in "Settings.")

Face ID projects more than 30,000 invisible IR dots. The IR image and dot pattern are pushed through neural networks to create a mathematical model of your face and send the data to the secure enclave to confirm a match, while adapting to physical changes in appearance over time. All saved facial information is protected by the secure enclave to keep data extremely secure, while all of the processing is done on-device and not in the cloud to protect user privacy.

Apple

It's so tech-forward that I can barely fathom how a tiny, handheld device can be so smart. All I know is that Face ID works, as countless reviews online (and my editor's first-hand account, TBH) confirm. That doesn't mean its immune to glitches, but it's safe to say you have a totally new layer of privacy thanks to a combination of the iPhone X's default hidden notifications setting and Face ID. Now nobody can look at your texts BUT you... literally. If only the iPhone X price tag wasn't so lofty, then we could all be walking around with face-recognizing phones.

Check out the entire Gen Why series and other videos on Facebook and the Bustle app across Apple TV, Roku, and Amazon Fire TV.